Recent Submissions

ENGLISH SUMMARY: The bacteriological confirmation of tuberculosis in children is challenging. The current diagnostic gold standard, liquid culture of respiratory specimens, has low sensitivity in paucibacillary paediatric ...

Background: Colistin is a last resort antibiotic for the treatment of carbapenem-resistant Gram negative infections. Until recently, mechanisms of colistin resistance were limited to chromosomal mutations which confer a ...

Introduction: Group A β-haemolytic Streptococcus
(GAS), a Gram-positive bacterium, also known as
Streptococcus pyogenes, causes pyoderma,
pharyngitis and invasive disease. Repeated GAS
infections may lead to autoimmune ...

Background: Juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) is a rare idiopathic inflammatory childhood myopathy of uncertain
aetiology. The demographic and clinical presentation of JDM may differ by race and geographic regions.
Few ...

Background: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) has established itself over the years as a major cause of morbidity and
mortality both within the community and in healthcare settings. Methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) ...

Background. The benchmark for contaminated blood cultures (BCs) is 3%. The South African (SA) guideline aims to optimise BC yield and reduce contamination. Data on BC collection practices in SA since the publication of the ...

Background:
Obesity appears to be associated with male reproductive dysfunction and infertility, although this has been inconsistent and inconclusive. Insulin and leptin are known mediators and modulators of the ...

Cryptococcal meningitis is the most frequent cause of meningitis and a major cause of mortality in HIV-infected adults in Africa. This study evaluated the performance of the lateral flow assay (LFA) on cerebrospinal fluid ...

South African women and children remain at the centre of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pandemic, and maternal well-being plays a critical role in child health. In this study, we evaluated the impact of the paediatric ...

Cancer biomarkers have provided great opportunities for improving the management of cancer patients by enhancing the efficiency of early detection, diagnosis, and efficacy of treatment. Every cell type has a unique molecular ...

The Tigecycline Evaluation and Surveillance Trial (T.E.S.T.) was established in 2004 to monitor longitudinal changes in bacterial susceptibility to numerous antimicrobial agents, specifically tigecycline. In this study, ...

Background. The increasing rates of antimicrobial resistance observed in the nosocomial pathogen Klebsiella pneumoniae are of major public health concern worldwide.
Objectives. To describe the antibiotic susceptibility ...

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Context: Excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UV) results in the risk of acquiring long-term harmful
effects such as photoaging, which is characterised by deep wrinkles, roughness, dyspigmentation ...

ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Several studies investigating the molecular characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus have been
conducted worldwide, however, in South Africa, most of these have focused on Methicillinresistant
S. aureus ...

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Objectives: The ability to form biofilms contributes significantly to the virulence of Staphylococcus aureus. Virulence factors may be associated with certain S. aureus lineages. However, the contribution ...

HIV-exposed but uninfected (HEU) infants born to HIV-infected mothers from areas in the world with a high burden of infectious
disease suffer higher infectious morbidity and mortality than their HIV unexposed uninfected ...

Background
Antibiotic consumption is a major driver of bacterial resistance. To address the increasing burden of multi-drug resistant bacterial infections, antibiotic stewardship programmes are promoted worldwide to ...

The key issues in the successful management of malaria are early
and accurate diagnosis and urgent treatment with effective drugs.
Disease presentation is, however, not specific – progression
to complicated disease may ...

The first year of life represents a time of marked susceptibility to infections; this is particularly true for regions in sub-Saharan Africa. As innate immunity directs the adaptive immune response, the observed increased ...

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is an independent predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and allcause
mortality. Significantly, it is considered a modifiable cardiovascular risk factor as its
regression ...

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Children in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities in the Western Cape and elsewhere in South
Africa are frequently infected by Trichuris trichiura. Although albendazole and mebendazole are listed
as ...

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A simple and rapid scatter-based flow cytometric assay was developed to detect
apoptosis in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from a mixed population of cells. The assay was
suitable for children.
Apoptotic PBMCs ...

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of MBV and Coley’s Toxin on dendritic
cells in vitro. The dendritic cell system of antigen presenting cells is the initiator and
modulator of the ...

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Background: In South Africa alone, 30% of women of child-bearing age are infected with HIV. With the increasing focus and success of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programmes, an ...

ABSTRACT: Background. Elizabethkingia spp. are opportunistic pathogens often found associated with intravascular device-related bacteraemias and ventilator-associated pneumonia. Their ability to exist as biofilm structures ...